Conference focuses on solutions to the housing crisis

Community Housing Conference
focuses on solutions to the housing crisis

It’s
time for housing reforms to kick into gear, and the
community housing sector is ready and waiting to deliver,
Community Housing Aotearoa says.

Director Scott Figenshow
says it is estimated the social and affordable housing
sector needs to provide approximately 15,000 safe, warm,
quality homes across New Zealand, above the 5000 currently
operated by the sector. Achieving this will require a level
of investment on the order of $530m per year for each of the
next five years.

“To get these homes built, we need all
of the puzzle pieces to work together. That means government
commitment, it means private and charitable input, and it
means it all rolling out in tandem, not in a piecemeal
fashion.

“We can’t afford to set any solution aside as
all of them are essential to make a proper housing market
work,” he says.

Director Scott Figenshow says
‘Solutions with IMPACT’ will be the focus of the
Community Housing Aotearoa conference in Nelson this week,
starting tomorrow (Wednesday, July 2).

“Community
housing is all about creating housing from the perspective
of what makes great communities, and works well for the
families who live there.

“We’re talking about
building communities with a mixture of incomes, and a range
of both rental and owner-occupied properties. These would be
built through a range of methods including by Community
Housing Organisations, private sector developers, landlords
and mum and dad owners,” he says.

Scott Figenshow says
research has shown that the kind of mixed housing CHA is
talking about improves people’s health and community
social outcomes.

“We also know we can provide two to
three times the value for the taxpayer than the government
would when delivering the housing themselves.”

He says
we need to use several tools together such as special
housing areas where land is cheaper due to increased
density.

“Matching new land supply with community
housing organisations that also receive philanthropic
investment and private capital means that the mixed tenure,
mixed income community might need less from the government
to build the same house.”

He says in the next few years
New Zealand has an opportunity to encourage people in the
community to deliver good outcomes for people in their
community and do it cost-effectively.

Scott Figenshow says
the sector is ready to go to reach the target and the
Government needs to be ready to do its part with the scale
of investment and stable policies that will allow that to
happen.

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